Was Manti Te'o a victim or a perpetrator?

Manti Te'o

Notre Dame football player Manti Te'o, whose on-field excellence after his grandmother and online girlfriend purportedly died made him a hero in the sports media, was the victim or perpetrator of a hoax.

Notre Dame football player Manti Te'o, whose on-field excellence after his grandmother and online girlfriend purportedly died made him a hero in the sports media, was the victim or perpetrator of a hoax.

You can’t make this stuff up, at least if you aren’t Oscar Wilde. All-American Notre Dame linebacker Manti T’eo supposedly lost his grandmother and his girlfriend, supposedly a student at Stanford, on the same day in the fall, but came through and played his heart out for the Fighting Irish. Now it appears the loss wasn’t as great as was first reported. The girlfriend, with whom he appears to have had an online relationship, never existed. He claims he was the victim of an elaborate hoax. Others wonder if he was in on it, if it was some kind of publicity stunt. What do you think?